“Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

“Strength to Love,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963

A young man is shot dead by a policeman in Missouri. A photojournalist is horrendously executed by Islamists. A dear friend’s niece and her baby are killed and their bodies burned in a family dispute.

Three non-related events have touched me deeply in recent days, each having a different “why,” but each making me cry.

I am on my way to Ferguson, Missouri now. There is grief, anger, and uncertainty there. But also there, somewhere, is the truth of how and why Michael Brown died.

That truth will be revealed in time.

We yearn, of course, for immediate answers and swift justice. There can be no justice, though, without truth. And without peace, the search for truth becomes more difficult.

In some instances, such as what happened to James Foley at the hands of ISIS or my friend’s niece and her baby at the hands of a rage-driven relative, the truth is plain to see. No explanation could possibly justify what their killers did. We know who the wrongdoers are and whatever their rationales for their actions, those rationales are woefully insufficient.

In the case of Michael Brown, we have conflicting reports as to the events that led to his shooting. The jury is not in. Yet, rather than wait for the truth, some have acted from a deep-seated sense that they already know the truth. In the name of “justice,” some victims have inflicted great injustices on themselves and the collective by turning to violence. In their pain and anger, they have brought more harm than good.

Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have righteous anger at acts of oppression, hatred, or cruelty that are offenses before God. God’s Word teaches us, though, that we should be slow to anger. And we should be careful to distinguish human emotional outrage over an offense to ourselves versus an offense to God. God’s righteous anger is most powerful; seeking to restore righteousness, not trample upon it by committing more wrongs.

In my book KING RULES I write about how my uncle, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and my father, the Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King, knew injustice. They, like millions of other African Americans, needed no introduction; injustice greeted them virtually every day of their lives. But they also knew peace in their hearts, the peace that surpasses all understanding. And from this peace, they sought and achieved a modicum of justice for the masses.

Yet Ferguson teaches us that the dream is still lacking. Until we slay the three headed beast of racism, reproductive genocide and sexual perversion, we still have mountains to climb and to overcome.

We live in a corrupt world. Yet God’s Word teaches us not to repay evil with evil. Instead we must live to overcome evil with good.

When Jesus was being wrongly arrested by the Romans, Peter took up a sword and cut off a soldier’s ear. Jesus responded, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.” In compassion, Jesus healed the wounded soldier who had come to arrest him.

Wow! That’s a higher frequency that we should tune into our heart. Love overcoming hate.

As men of God, and students of history, Uncle M.L. and Daddy understood that violence begets violence. Violence is often borne of rage. And rage destroys – not only neighborhoods, but also lives. Rage is borne of hate. And hate does not seek the truth, but rather spawns victims. And victims seek other victims to make them suffer as they’ve suffered. Hurting people hurt people. And on and on and on souls fall towards a yawning abyss.

As Uncle M.L. Once wrote, violence is a descending spiral.

But inspired by 1 Corinthians 13, believing “Love never fails,” he also wrote, “darkness cannot drive out darkness and hatred cannot drive out hate. Only light can end the darkness, only love can drive out hate.”

My prayer is for the peace and healing of Ferguson, but also for the peace and healing of those who have recently lost loved ones – the families of Michael Brown, James Foley, my friend, those who have died at the hands of the abortion industry such as LaKisha Wilson and Tonya Reaves, and those who are victims of human trafficking, war, poverty, and other horrors of our fallen world.

My prayer is that we love truth; loving truth, that we seek it. Once finding the truth, that we seek justice. And once finding justice, we enjoy peace. As Uncle M.L. said, “true peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice.”

Grieving, but believing, please join me in prayer for all of Ferguson as well as for all victims of violence who suffer in sterile hospital units, in darkened rooms, in abortion chambers, and by tear-drenched gravesites. We need repentance, forgiveness, and love. Let us seek them first.

“I believe that the verdict in the Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin Case further exposes a grievous and deep vein of disharmony and racial tension in our nation that can only be healed when people realize that every human being should be treated with dignity and respect,” says Dr. Alveda King, Director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life.

“A trial like this causes public debate, and people have forgotten what is right anymore. Now Trayvon’s tragic death is obscured and Mr. Zimmerman is a public spectacle. The lines of what is right and what is legal/lawful have also been blurred and this trial exposes that.

“We saw the same scenarios in the O. J. trial and the Casey Anthony case. There was reasonable doubt, no matter how minute the reasonable doubt proves to be. Even more recently, abortionists are butchering women in so called legal yet under-regulated facilities where in many cases no arrests are being made; with Kermit Gosnell’s case being a recent exception.

“In Chicago, where random killings are at an all time high, a Black Woman, Tonya Reaves, was recently slaughtered and bled to death for five hours in a Planned Parenthood abortion mill and no arrests have been made.

“Now in the wake of Trayvon’s senseless death and Mr. Zimmerman’s acquittal many people are angry at the tragic loss of life and what some perceive to be a shun on the Black race. For the record, Acts 17:26 teaches that there is one blood and one human race, not multiple races, so racism is based on a lie!

“Others seem to feel a victory because certain constitutional rights were favorably argued and the question of reasonable doubt prevailed in this case. Yet it is important to also note that Zimmerman’s life is ruined too, and that the court of public opinion is not completely on his side.

“So in a way the blind scales of justice seem to have favored Mr. Zimmerman while Trayvon’s voice is silenced and his dream died with him.

“The Bible says mercy triumphs over justice:

“For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13 NKJV)

“And Micah 6:8 says that we should add love and humility to justice.

“Micah 6:8 (NIV)
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.

“Love and humility are missing on both sides of this struggle!

“My uncle Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that we must all learn to live together as brothers (and sisters) or perish as fools. Too many people are dying today for too many reasons, and the race baiting and strife add fuel to the fire which grieves my soul.

“Again a young American man has perished, another is a public spectacle. Who wins?

“We must now use this controversy as an opportunity to help educate our future generations as to how to act and how to react in similar situations; then maybe young Trayvon’s death will not be in vain.

“A profound injustice has occurred in glossing over the death of this young man and the suffering of his family. The not guilty verdict violates the tender nuances of human suffering and the integrity of the criminal justice system in his community.

“It remains critically-important, however, that all protests against the verdict demonstrate an irrevocable commitment to nonviolence, to honor the dignity of Trayvon Martin’s precious life and not add further tragedy to what his family and the people of Sanford have already experienced.

“Let’s face it. If both people in this tragedy were of common ethnicity, there would be no media feeding frenzy. The gun control debate is a smokescreen in that people do use guns to kill other people as Zimmerman did in this case. But guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Yes, sometimes they use guns, but they sometimes use bombs or knives too. We definitely need love control and heart control and nonviolence control.

“There are murders going on every day that the media overlooks. Remember Tonya Reaves. Millions of Black babies and many of their mothers are being slaughtered in abortion mills. Where is the justice for that?

“Obviously strife and struggle and conflict were at the base of this case. Two men alone on the street in the dark. A punch is thrown. A gun escalates the trauma and drama. We need a Beloved Community. We need nonviolence conflict resolution.

“Let us please give a nonviolent response to Trayvon’s family, to Mr. Zimmerman and to America to help to promote healing and to lay the foundation needed to repeal faulty laws that fail to protect our youth, and to further enact other reforms to prevent such tragedies in the future.”

That’s what abortion proponents are saying, that “Gosnell is one of a kind” and that’s what they want you to think.

At first the abortion lobby was all too content to keep any information regarding late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s murder trial out of the public arena. And now that news agencies are beginning to report on the case, they are all too eager to speak to the media to spin their deceitful lies and display their pseudo concern for the real victims, the mothers and babies.

In a recent Reuters article, Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America said that “Gosnell ran a criminal enterprise, not a healthcare facility, and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

What Ferrero fails to mention is that the local Planned Parenthood of Southwest Pennsylvania knew about the problems at the Gosnell clinic because women would go to Planned Parenthood after visiting Gosnell and complain about the condition there as reported by LifeNews.

Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America said, “This is a peek into the back-alley days, the pre-Roe v. Wade days. It’s what too many women experienced when we didn’t provide access to safe and clean abortion services,” Hogue said, referring to the landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1973 that struck down state laws restricting abortion.

The only problem with Houge’s logic is that it is happing now, in 2013, 40 years after Roe v. Wade was passed and abortions are now supposed to be safe and rare, neither of which is true.

A newly published article by Operation Rescue chronicles “four 911 calls placed from a single Planned Parenthood in Orange, California, three of which were made on the same day, seeking emergency transport for patients suffering complications from an abortion and one employee experiencing chest pain.” (Complete with video)

And let’s not forget the Planned Parenthood in Chicago late last year that let a patient, Tonya Reaves, bleed for 5 hours before calling for an ambulance and transporting her to a hospital where she later died. Prior to her death, the hospital also had to perform another abortion because Planned Parenthood failed to remove the baby completely during their initial procedure.

Earlier this year late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart killed Jennifer Morbelli who went in for what she thought was a safe abortion. She ended up dead because Carhart’s abortion clinic tells their patients not to go to an emergency room if they experience complications during the two day procedure or after the abortion. And the number they are given for an emergency is for a horse farm, another business that Carhart owns. And furthermore, Jennifer is not the first patient Carhart has killed.

These are but a few of the horror stories you can find by doing a simple Google search on botched abortions.

No, abortions are not safe, nor are they rare; and the fact that Gosnell took action to make sure the babies did die if they survived the procedure is also not rare. The only thing that is rare is that he got caught.

Many in the abortion industry espouse that if the baby was supposed to die during the abortion procedure then it’s perfectly fine if the baby is killed or allowed to die after he/she survives the procedure. That is straight from the mouth of Planned Parenthood lobbyist Alisa LaPolt Snow who was testifying against born-alive infants protection act in Florida. Cecile Richards never spoke out about Snow’s comments. Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates did release a statement attempting to clarify their position stating that they “would provide “appropriate care” to both the woman and the infant.” But who knows what “appropriate care” means? Let’s see what it means to two other abortion facilities.

LiveAction.org just recently released two undercover videos that show two abortion facilities telling an undercover pregnant mother what they would do if the baby was born alive after an attempted abortion.

One said they would do nothing to help the baby survive which is in violation of the federal Born Alive Infant s Protection Act. The other went as far as to tell the woman that if the baby was born alive at home that she should “flush it” [down the toilet.]

Gosnell’s is certainly not the only one. He’s not an outlier. He’s not unusual in the abortion industry.

He’s just the only one with high visibility who’s been caught and prosecuted thus far. There is documentation of so many others. What will happen to them remains to be seen. Will government agencies continue to ignore the warning signs? Will they continue to ignore laws that are already in place in many states? Will they refuse to enforce inspection requirements?

Another contention being advocated by the abortion industry is that if we only had fewer restrictions women wouldn’t have to turn to someone like Gosnell. Other than the fact that that’s an absurd notion on its face, the abortion industry is already pretty much self-regulated. The situation with Gosnell occurred because the laws were not enforced and Gosnell was left to self-regulate himself.

Women went to Gosnell because he was known to do abortions past the legal limit. Women were referred to him by other abortion providers because they knew this. What Planned Parenthood and others would have us believe is that if they lifted the gestation limit on abortion to say 35 weeks 6 days then everything would be fine.

I think President Obama said it best when he said, [and I’m paraphrasing here], we’d still be thinking about tens of thousands of people, women, children, who’ve been killed by a regime that’s more concerned about staying in power than it is about the well-being of the people. This is from his press conference on April 30, 2013 and he was talking about Syria and whether they had used chemical weapons or not. But he needs to have similar sentiments about Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry except he would have had to change the word “thousands” to “millions.”

In 1996, then-President Bill Clinton famously said he would like to see abortion “safe, legal and rare.” Seventeen years later, abortion remains legal. It kills more than a million unborn babies a year, so it is certainly not rare. And as a new project called “Safe & Legal” demonstrates, abortion is not safe for women.

“We are bringing graphic visuals to the truth that abortion harms women,” explains Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, which is co-sponsoring this project along with Operation Rescue and Life Dynamics (the group which initiated it).

A new brochure, entitled “Safe and Legal,” shows a beautiful photo of Marla Cardamone, and then her horrific autopsy photos following her death by “safe and legal abortion” at a respected hospital in Pittsburgh, PA.

“I am grateful to Marla’s mom, Deborah, and her husband for their full support of this project and their permission to use these photos,” said Fr. Pavone. “As they know, this project isn’t just about Marla; it’s about the countless women Marla represents, who are killed by abortion without the world ever knowing.”

This past July, Priests for Life and its Director of African-American Outreach, Alveda King, helped bring attention to a young mother, Tonya Reaves, who was killed after a botched second-trimester abortion in Chicago.

“The utter failure of the abortionist to get help for Tonya after she developed complications constitutes nothing less than murder,” Fr. Pavone explained.

The case of Tonya, and many others, will be highlighted along with that of Marla on the special website, SafeAndLegal.com that has been developed for this project.

The brochure about Marla will be distributed widely by Priests for Life and others at this year’s March for Life. Moreover, also at the March, Priests for Life will release Executive Director Janet Morana’s new book, Recall Abortion, which makes the case that abortion is a failed product that should be recalled by the government just as other harmful products have been recalled. This book, along with the annual gathering of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, which Janet co-founded, will reinforce the same message about how abortion harms women.

“We ask everyone to get involved and to spread the truth about Marla and others killed and wounded by abortion,” said Fr. Frank. “As Deborah Cardamone has said often, we have to speak, because if we are silent, we are part of the problem.”

Last summer, the National Black Prolife Coalition was among the first and most outraged groups to demand justice for the death of Tonya Reaves, a young Black woman killed by abortion in Chicago. For years, women who have been harmed by abortion have been crying out that “abortion hurts women!” Janet Morana is right to lead the crusade to RECALL ABORTION. As we somberly yet purposefully approach the 40 year landmine of the anniversary of Roe VS Wade, let us make no mistake about it. We are ready to continue this battle for LIFE AT ALL COSTS.

Yesterday Operation Rescue wrote an article stating that a second lawsuit had been filed against Planned Parenthood in the death of Tonya Reaves. Again, Tonya Reaves was a 24 year-old woman who went to Planned Parenthood for an abortion which they botched. She was then left bleeding for five hours before an ambulance was called. She was rushed to the hospital where they discovered that the abortion performed by Planned Parenthood was incomplete and she had to undergo another abortion in the hospital to remove the remainder of the baby. But it was too late and Tonya Reaves died later that evening in the hospital.

The first wrongful death lawsuit against Planned Parenthood was filed by Tonya’s family. The second lawsuit was filed on behalf of Tonya’s surviving son, Alvin, by his father. Tonya and her baby died, leaving young Alvin motherless.

Some people will not understand that along with the injustice of Planned Parenthood killing Tonya, another injustice occurred. They killed her baby in her womb as well. So how do we express to Tonya’s family in a loving way that two people died that day?

Because of lack of coverage by much of the media, not too many people are even aware of Tonya’s murder. And despite efforts by the National Black Prolife Coalition through press releases to hold Planned Parenthood accountable, there seems to be an unusual amount of stall tactics where justice should prevail. One can’t help but remember the onslaught of outrage during the Trayon Martin tragedy? Where are all of those outraged Black leaders who were demanding swift justice for the tragic slaying of Trayvon?

Not only are the leaders of the NAACP and other Black voices such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson lacking in conversation surrounding the unjust death of Tonya. Absent also is the outrage over the death of Tonya’s baby and the other 3,699 babies that were killed that day in abortion mills throughout this country. And all the while, Planned Parenthood keeps laughing on the way to the bank while killing hundreds of thousands of babies every year, to the tune of over 50 million dead babies on record since 1973. What’s even worse is that where before 2012, Planned Parenthood was receiving $1 million dollars a day in U. S. tax dollars, yes, around $365 million dollars a year; in 2012 they received over $500 million dollars from our tax coffers. And they are still operating poorly regulated killing centers around this country. And in a few days, people will be observe the 40th commemoration of legal baby slaughter in America.

Yes, abortion is legal; but it shouldn’t be. Abortion is not civil. Abortion is not moral. Abortion hurts women, kills babies, and even kills women like Tonya and the countless others who have died from abortion and/or subsequent complications over the years. Coat hangers are the excuse they hang over the head of the dead babies and maimed women. But as is explained by recording artist Fred Hammond, many women never used a coat hanger even when abortion was illegal. They just had a “medical procedure” called a D&C for a “mysterious female ailment” which was really a baby in the mother’s/patient’s womb.

The abortion industry began saying that they wanted to make abortion legal, safe, and rare. They have successes in one, legal. Safe, not so. Ask Tonya. Rare? Is 54+ million rare?

As for rare, Planned Parenthood’s annual report just released for FY 2011-2012 (calendar year 2011) shows that abortions are not rare with a record number of abortions in 2011 with 333,964. Over the last three years (2009-2011) Planned Parenthood has performed nearly one million abortions (995,687)

As for safe, well, I think we’ve covered that. I would just like to mention that there have been over 345 reported deaths linked directly botched abortions. And that’s just the ones that we know of that have been attributed to the abortions and are documented. Many other deaths are attributed to other causes but are actually a result of abortion complications.

This outrage bears repeating over and over – despite the government’s saying that they do not pay for abortions, Planned Parenthood received a record $542 million in taxpayer funding last year. They can spin it any way they want to, but our tax dollars are funding murder by abortion and not just for babies. Their mothers are dying too. Women are being lied to; told that abortions are safe and are a civil right. And our babies are dying.

Finding a balance between enough regulation and too much regulation is always a challenge. But I think we all agree that any business that is left unregulated or at least regulated without enforcement is not a good idea.

Michigan lawmakers are trying to fix that problem with an industry that has virtually gone unchecked for many years: the abortion industry. But, like in other states where lawmakers have tried to place regulations that will help protect the women seeking abortions, the abortion industry is labeling such legislation as an attack on women’s rights.

The New York Times published an editorial by last week that did just that. They called the new regulations “An Affront to Michigan Women.” They said,

“Despite clear public support for women’s reproductive rights, Michigan’s Republican-controlled Legislature used the just-ended lame-duck session to ram through harmful measures eliminating insurance coverage of abortions and imposing medically unnecessary regulations on providers of safe and legal abortion care.”

Did you ever wonder why regulations on hospitals or medical clinics are not met with such heated opposition? Doctors have to deal with all kinds of regulations to protect patient’s rights and keep them safe. Why does the abortion industry and abortionists feel that they are above all that?

For years now abortion profiteers have been able to do as they please without much oversight because people are afraid to being labeled as “attackers of women’s reproductive rights.”

When problems do arise, they throw a lot of money at them (because they make millions from abortions) and make it go away such was the case in Kansas and the Planned Parenthood case that has seen most of the charges brought against them dropped and the life and career of former Kansas attorney general Phill Kline destroyed for going after them.

Another point of contention is his characterization of abortion mills as providing “safe and legal abortion care.” Try telling that to the family of Tonya Reaves who dies after a botched abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility in Chicago or the hundreds of other who have died from botched abortions.

Without sufficient regulations and enforcement stories like that of Dr. Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia who performed abortions by delivering the babies and sticking scissors at the base of the skull killing the babies. He was eventually arrested and charged with six counts of murder. Other members of his staff were also charged with various crimes.

A friend of mine brought this editorial to my attention along with her letter to the editor. Here’s what she had to say.

To the Editor,

Contrary to the Dec. 27th editorial, bills regulating abortion services in Michigan are needed, sorely needed to correct literally decades of sub-standard and dangerous medical practices that have plagued that state’s abortion facilities for decades. Several Michigan clinics violated state laws by throwing bloody bio-hazard waste and literally hundreds of patient records into their dumpsters. In recent years even the dismembered remains of aborted babies were discovered in clinic trash containers. Hundreds of lawsuits have been brought by women permanently maimed by abortion practitioners. If the Times thinks that the new statutes are an “affront to Michigan women” it should consider Tamia Russell, Chevron Williams and Regina Johnson—just three women who died from botched abortions in Michigan. The Times never wrote any editorials about them! Michigan should be applauded for calling abortionists to responsibility in a trade that often exploits women who are vulnerable and desperate and believe abortion is their only “choice.”

Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D.

The pro-aborts are always trying to paint the pro-lifers as being against women’s rights which couldn’t be further from the truth. We love the babies and mothers alike. We consider ALL LIFE to be precious and a gift from God. We view abortion as being harmful to women and would like to see it end. But the reality is that, at least for now, it’s legal. With that said, we don’t want women hurt by money hungry abortionists that are more interested in their profit line than they are about the women. Too many botched abortions are taking place. Too many women are being hurt. Any regulations that will reduce those numbers is a good thing and should not be opposed by anyone, especially those that say they believe in access to “safe and legal abortions” for women.

One last thought. I’m reminded of what Abby Johnson wrote in her book, Unplanned. She said that when she first began working for Planned Parenthood it was because she was told that they wanted to make abortions safe and rare. I’ve noticed that nobody talks about the “rare” aspect of abortions any more. Do you ever wonder why? I guess there’s no money in that.

There is plenty of time to vote today. As you go to the ballot box I urge you to educate yourself on the candidates and the issues and cast a responsible vote that will take this country in the direction that is best for America.

Atlanta, GA — Citing the deaths of hundreds of women, Dr. Alveda King, Dr. Day Gardner and Rev. Catherine Davis of the National Black Prolife Coalition Women’s IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME PROJECT are urging everyone to vote biblical values on November 6.

“Life is precious and beautiful. The brutal deaths of women who die by abortion warrant a vote for life and family. Stop the killing; vote for life,” said Dr. King who heads up www.africanamericanoutreach.com.

“Walter B. Hoye II, founder of Issues4Life Foundation, sanctions this urgent appeal:“Abortion, the most unregulated surgical procedure in the nation, has left a trail of dead women and over 55 million babies in its wake. Last July Tonya Reaves died from an abortion done in a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Chicago. Ms. Reaves isn’t a poster child. She was a soon to be married, beautiful Black woman, mother and twin sister who is yet another victim of the abortion industry’s criminal negligence and depraved indifference toward women and children. My wife and I are praying this tragedy awakens the collective conscience of Black America to this wretched, unregulated and tax-payer funded industry that is profiting from the deaths of our women and children.” Rev. Hoye is a leader in the call for a criminal investigation into the death of Ms. Reaves and other women harmed by abortion.”

In television and radio commercials, the group notes that fathers, mothers, womb babies and society at large are at risk.

“DBA is alarming. Millions of babies have died, thousands of women have been maimed and hundreds of women have died from legal abortions in America since the passage of Roe VS Wade. It could have been me or someone you love,” said Dr. Gardner, founder of the National Black Prolife Union.

NBPC’s national efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, is advancing their ongoing “awareness campaign” to inform, educate and activate people to get involved to end the “scourge of abortion.” A biblical prolife vote is part of their message.

“The best way to help people is not to fund abortion and contraceptives, but rather support biblical values. People need jobs and education, not abortions,” added Dr. King.

“We’re not advocating a personality contest for voters next week. This issue is too important to play politics. The truth isn’t always politically correct. We want voters to go to the polls and not stay home. We want people to remember God and life when they go to vote” added Dr. Gardner. More information on the campaign can be found at www.couldhavebeenme.com.